Original subtitles

Dark ambient music

[watch ticking]

[Tape warps]

[Watch ticking]

One, two...

Three, four, five...

Six, seven, eight, nine...

[Metronome ticking]

This is the most terrible thing that's ever happened in Lincoln.

Her hands were bound in front of her,

and there was a gag on her mouth.

[Man vo] It was the first of its kind... these rebels without

a cause killing people for no reason.

You could feel the fear just on the TV itself.

[Man vo] Charley starkweather saw himself as James Dean.

I think he's crazy.

[Man vo] Caril always wanted to be somebody.

She wanted to be a star.

[Woman vo] I thought, "oh, wow, is she a hard-lookin' broad."

[Man vo] I see, really, a scared little girl.

[Man vo] The only two people who witnessed what went on were

Charles starkweather and caril fugate,

and everybody else is dead.

[TV flicks off]

Ominous music

Charley and caril travelled all the way across the state of

Nebraska, which finally comes to its climax in Wyoming,

when he's wrestling with somebody in the middle of the

street, about to kill his 12th victim,

and she's about to see it...

And she sees the police officer over there.

That's where it explodes.

She is getting away from Charley.

She's thinking, "i have to get to this man.

I have to get to this police officer and this has to end."

It was not a capture.

She had escaped.

She escaped.

She saw a cop car.

He was armed.

She ran in a zig-zag pattern.

She's thinking, "at last, I found a police car!"

She said, "that's Charles starkweather!

Arrest him!"

Of course, they arrested her.

She could have fought extradition back to Nebraska.

But again, she's a 14-year-old child;

she doesn't know what's going on.

And they didn't give her a lawyer.

[Battisti vo] She signed extradition papers.

She said, "I thought I had to sign something so I could leave

and go home to mom!"

She goes, "yeah, I wanna go back to Nebraska!"

She wanted to see her mother!

Right then is when her next nightmare began.

Dark ambient music

[commotion and cameras flashing]

[Battisti vo] When she first got into the jail,

she became hysterical, probably because she was relieved,

you know, and then she could let it all out.

She said, "where's my mother?

Where's my mother?

Why doesn't my mother call me?

When is she gonna call me?"

And Hazel heflin, sheriff heflin's wife,

said, "well, you know, right now,

the lines are very busy and, um, I'm sure they'll be calling

you later."

And then, she said to her husband,

"I don't think she knows her family's dead."

That she was in Wyoming.

Caril said, "don't leave me, don't leave me,

he's gonna come and get me."

And mrs heflin would say, "he can't get you.

He's in jail."

"No, he will," you know, "he will,

he will."

And that's when she got the hypodermic needle.

Because she was so hysterical.

And it knocked her out so that she slept for 17 hours.

Well, by the time the prosecutors got there to talk to

her, she was out of it.

Her parents are dead.

Everybody just keeps saying, "later,

caril, later."

And it isn't until she's in gering, Nebraska

that gertrude karnopp just very coldly turns to her

and goes, "well, don't you know, caril?

They're dead."

[Battisti vo] And that's when caril said,

"you're lying to me, they're not dead,

they're not dead, they're not dead,

they're not dead."

She was still very, very confused at that point.

She said, "what are all these people talking about?

My family's alive.

I'm gonna see them when I get back.

When I see my sister, I'll know what happened when I see Barb."

They were taken back separately extradited back to Nebraska.

When Charley starkweather was arrested and caril was captured,

it was sort of like a win for the police department.

Karnopp and scheele, they got their man and they're driving

back.

A key thing that must have spoiled it was when Charley

starkweather admitted to killing colvert;

he did that on the drive back.

Tense music

Elmer scheele and sheriff karnopp,

they knew they were still under a lot of pressure.

What was gonna be revealed to the public was further stain on

their reputation, further stain on the police department.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] This was a huge story,

known everywhere.

They should have gotten Charley the month before in December,

when he had murdered somebody else.

They certainly had enough information,

other witnesses, other evidence, but they hadn't,

and Charley himself was kind of teasing them about that.

And caril left clues behind for them for them to find.

At the bartlett house, caril made the note that said,

"we're sick with the flu, don't come in,"

and then at the bottom wrote, "miss bartlett,"

and she underlined "miss bartlett" three times,

and the reason she did this was it was a way of sending a signal

to people out in the world without Charley recognizing it.

Dark music

because caril went by "fugate."

Her mother went by "mrs barlett,"

which was more important at that time.

"Mrs bartlett."

The only "miss barlett" in the house was this two-year-old

half-sister of hers.

And of course, she couldn't have written a note like that,

and so that was the reason she underlined it three times: To

simply say to people "something is wrong."

And the police were just like, "ah,

you're crazy.

We're not gonna go investigate that any further."

And so if she got out there saying to people,

"hey, I left clues behind," that made them look all the worse.

It became more in their own personal best interest to

prosecute her because of the fact that then it turns the

narrative away from "why didn't they catch these people?"

To "look at this 14-year-old girl,

and look, it's the new Bonnie and Clyde."

[Faint commotion]

[O'Donnell vo] The public, when they saw Charley,

here was a teenage murderer, cigarette hangin' out of his

mouth, rough-lookin' he fit the part.

So there was no sympathy for Charles starkweather in

this state.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] When she was brought back,

for the most part, the prosecution just simply knew

they didn't have to go to the press... the press was coming to

them... so they would just simply say,

"we charged her with accessory of murder" and fed them little

bits and pieces of evidence just from one single point-of-view.

So, like, when you look at those early pictures of her when she's

being brought back, the reporters are wanting to talk to

her, but they've rolled up all the windows and they won't let

her speak to anybody, and they wouldn't even let anybody tell

her what they're reporting.

[Shutter clicks]

[Wright vo] Most of the pictures that I've taken were

done with this camera.

1950, I'd just gotten out of school and came to a job with

the Lincoln star.

My primary job was to take the film, not stills.

Try shooting stills and movies.

This is a picture of caril Ann fugate here in Lincoln.

[O'Donnell vo] Public opinion in Nebraska at the time was

horribly against caril Ann fugate.

99 percent of the people in this state felt that she was a

willing accomplice.

[Battisti vo] When she was brought back to town,

she arrived in Lincoln at night.

And they put her in that mental institution.

She still really wasn't clear about her family.

One of the things that we often see when people experience

profound psychological trauma is that there's this...

Intense, almost desperate attempt to hold onto hope.

[Battisti vo] It didn't register with her that they were

all dead until she saw her sister in the

mental institution.

And she said, "are they dead, Barb?"

And she said, "yes, caril, they are."

And she said, "that was the time I knew that they were dead,

because I knew my sister would never lie to me."

[Tape warps]

[Metronome ticking]

[Soft crying]

[Crying] Stupid!

[Inhales sharply]

Dead!

[Crying] Dead!

They were dead!

[Cries]

[Crying] I failed, I failed...

[Crying] They lied...

[Tape clicks off]

[Writing on paper]

[Battisti vo] I really enjoy true crime,

and [chuckling] I enjoy murder mysteries...

Knowing what's behind murder, horrible things.

And I began reading about Charles starkweather,

and I thought, "wow, that was a bad guy,

you know, he killed 11 people and...

Killed people he didn't even know.

And his girlfriend went with him."

And I thought, "she must be horrible!

She must be just like he is.

She must have been a... a little tramp just out... she hated her

parents, I mean, she cussed and smoked and did all that.

What a horrible girl!"

But then, I started...

Thinking about things.

I thought, "this is really strange.

I really don't know this young woman."

And really, that's what drew me in.

I wanted to get to know her.

I ordered the trial transcripts.

When I read caril's trial, I read it over and over again,

and...

I said, "John mcarthur proved this girl's innocence.

What happened?"

It was after two years I really wanted to write a book.

I've never read more in my life.

It took me 15 years to write this book.

I was drawn to caril because I never in my life would have

thought...

Police officers or prosecutors or judges would...

Would do wrong things.

They just don't do that!

When I first met her, I stayed at her apartment with her,

and I brought my recorder up then so...

She had an apartment, a lovely apartment.

She sews... she's a wonderful seamstress... so she made

everything... all her curtains, she made the bed spread,

everything.

And she had this bird flying loose.

I've always been afraid of birds,

and that bird was flying around everywhere.

Because she told me, "I will never have anything caged in my

house," and I thought, "I get it but..."

[Laughs]

Yeah.

Tense music

when she's speaking with her sister,

I had given caril a blank recorder,

and I said, "here's what i'd like you to do: Just sit down

with Barb, have a nice chat, and run the recorder."

[Caril on recording] Yeah, it's flashing.

Um, Linda, my sister and i, we're just gonna talk.

And then, uh, we'll just let you edit it and put it where you...

In the area you think it belongs.

Dark music

our father was an alcoholic.

He had that personality of a Jekyll and Hyde.

[Keys jingling]

You never really knew what our dad was gonna be like until he

opened the door and came in.

So my mom would have us hide in the closet.

[Distant man shouting indistinctly]

Most of it was verbal abuse.

Then, this one time he physically got in with her.

He was arrested several times.

One was corrupting a minor.

That's a nice way of saying he had sex with a minor.

[Caril on recording] Nothing was stable.

You could come home from school and your whole house would be

packed with a bunch of boxes...

Most of the time, probably because we were evicted.

And so they moved around a lot, until she got married the

second time.

And I can remember my mother was telling me that one of the best

things that happened to velda was when she married Marion.

Tender music

[battisti vo] She loved Marion and called him "father,"

because she said, "I never had a father until he married my

mother."

And after Betty Jean was born, every time Marion bought Betty

Jean something, he bought Barb and caril something too.

And he said, "these aren't my stepdaughters,

these are my daughters, these are my children.

Tell me the first time that you remember Charley and how you met

him and...

[Caril on recording] Um, the first time I met him,

my sister had brought him down.

We double-dated and we'd go to drive-ins.

Go ahead and open it.

Dramatic music

[caril on recording] And after we'd seen that,

it was like...

I could not open the door to our apartment.

I would knock on the door, and then I'd run back and I'd wait

until somebody opened the door.

Ominous music

I just could not open that door 'cause I knew the monster was

behind it.

[Battisti on recording] Did you think Charley was really cool?

[Caril on recording] Yeah, in the beginning,

I really did.

He did remind me of, you know, like James Dean.

He was... he was fun, he was funny.

When he smiled, his whole face would light up.

But then, it also gave you a sense of... well,

when you're that age and then there's an older boy is

interested in you, it makes you feel like...

You're worth something.

There were numerous times when he would ask me to marry him,

and I'd tell him I was too young,

that I didn't even know what love was.

[Battisti on recording] Um...

Did you ever notice Charley changing at any time, caril?

[Caril on recording] Yeah, he did.

I started withdrawing from him because he started fantasizing

more and...

You know, like he would get a better job and he had this and

he had that.

He would say, like, he was born too late,

that he should have been born back when the west was

still wild.

He'd get in this...

Accusing me of things, you know, and he started going into this

accusation constantly, just driving me crazy, you know?

"Well, what did you say at school?

Who did you talk to?"

And it was like he was trying to control...

Every minute of my breathing existence.

She she told Charley that she didn't want to see him anymore,

and she told her mother to tell Charley,

if he came around when she wasn't there,

not to come around anymore.

[Caril on recording] When I broke up with him and he left

that Sunday, I never, ever again...

Seen...

The Charles starkweather that I knew.

He's basically put so much of his own life into her,

and that's why, when she broke up with him,

he fell apart.

Ominous music

[caril on recording] When this happened,

and I came home from school that day,

and I opened the door...

Dramatic music

there was the monster behind the door.

[Battisti vo] Her mother was never,

never not at home when caril came home from school.

So she believed him immediately when he said,

"I've kidnapped your parents and your younger sister."

[Man vo] Caril, what happened to you when you came home from

school on that Tuesday?

[Girl vo] He was standing behind the door when

I walked in.

I don't remember whether he grabbed me or not.

He said for me to sit down on the couch or chair,

and then I asked him where where my folks were 'cause they

were gone.

And then, he told me that story.

[Man vo] Which story was that?

[Girl vo] He told me my folks were over at that old lady's

house and he said if I done what he told me to do,

then they wouldn't be hurt.

[Battisti vo] Then, he told her his friends were right outside

the door to her house too, so if she tried to escape,

they would shoot her.

She said, "you're crazy.

What is all this?

You're a fool, what are you talking about?"

He said, "sit down."

And she said, "no, i'm not gonna sit down."

And then, he slapped her so hard that she had to sit down.

And she told me, "I didn't know who that person was.

That was not the starkweather I knew."

[Man vo] Then, what did you and he do.

[Girl vo] We watched television.

[Battisti vo] It would be five days in the house.

Caril really was in a fog.

She was just so afraid of being there with him.

He wouldn't let her out of the house.

The only time he would allow her out of the house was to collect

mail, and then he would always be watching her.

She said not a lot happened.

They watched a lot of TV.

But in the meantime, there are three bodies in the sheds

out back.

[Man vo] Now, during that time, caril,

did you go to the bathroom?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] There in the home?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] You have a new bathroom there,

is that right?

[Girl vo] Yes.

We talk about the Miranda rights.

That didn't happen until the 1960s,

and so there's no...

Definite right that you had to be given an attorney,

but typically, people knew to ask for one.

But a 14-year-old child doesn't know anything about that,

so the police just came in, knowing that they had already

pressed charges on her, never told her they're pressing

charges against her... anything she's saying can and will be

used against her in court... Pretending they're just getting

information about Charley but really building the case against

her.

[Man vo] Now, then, caril, during that time that you were

in the house out there, did you...

Have sexual relations with Charles starkweather?

[Girl vo] I don't think so.

I know what you mean.

[Man vo] Do you know what I mean?

[Girl vo] Yes.

He has no problem bringing all this up...

To show, in their view, that she wasn't a hostage,

that there was a real romantic

and sexual relationship going on.

[Man vo] Did he, at any time, have his sexual organ our in

your presence?

[Girl vo] No.

I... don't know what you mean.

[Battisti vo] I don't think they had a clue what being a

14-year-old little girl is about.

Plus, they had a preconceived idea about caril... that she was

a tramp and that she had experienced sex,

which back then in '50s...

That was horrible.

I mean, you couldn't even be an unwed mother back in the '50s.

[Man vo] Did he, at any time, put his...

Penis up in your... sexual organ?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] And did he stick it in very far?

[Girl vo] No.

[Man vo] Did he put it in slightly?

[Girl vo] He didn't put it in an inch.

[Man vo] He put it in... less than an inch?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] He did put it in but less than an inch,

is that right?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] What was the reason he didn't put it in further?

[Girl vo] It hurt.

Dale fahrnbruch, the prosecutor,

he was very, very interested in her sex life with starkweather

for some reason.

You know, now that she was an adult,

she said, "he was impotent; He couldn't have an erection.

But I didn't know that at that age."

[Man vo] Now, caril, I believe you also told me earlier that

you told Charles on the way to Wyoming that you loved him.

Is that true?

[Girl vo] Yes.

I think so.

[Man vo] And did you tell him that on more than one occasion?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] And what was your reason for telling him that?

[Girl vo] I was afraid he might kill me.

[Caril on recording] It was actually nothing but...

Days of being verbally, emotionally battered...

By adults...

Who did not take into consideration that this was a

child doing the best they could to relay to them...

The horror that she had seen!

[Man vo] And how many times would you say,

caril, you stayed in the house while he went away?

[Girl vo] Almost about every night.

He tied me up when he left the house,

but he didn't tie me up tight so it hurt.

Caril was thinking, "my family is being held by Charley's gang

of robbers " and that " if I try to get away or warn or do this

or that, he would have them killed."

Dark music

to protect themselves, a response that people will have

in extreme trauma is tonic immobility.

[Distant man shouting indistinctly]

It's as if the body or, in this case,

the mind is just frozen.

Collapsing, but it can also be a situation where it's more of a

mental state of just being completely unable to make the

ordinary decisions, to think things through,

to see things in the way that one ordinarily does.

Predator will just go limp.

It almost looks like they're feigning death,

and sometimes, they will actually almost have no heart

rate.

The predators would just drop the prey and...

Go do something else.

Suspenseful music

[commotion]

Charley originally said caril had nothing to do with any of

the killings.

Houses out behind the house.

But caril came home about four that afternoon.

I told her a line that they were somewhere.

I was gonna tell her about what happened,

but I was letting it go by, and before I said anything,

the days went by too fast.

At that point, he still had not turned quite against caril,

even though he gave different confessions here and there.

But he wanted to see her.

Dale fahrnbruch and Elmer scheele would be talking to her.

And they said, "no, she doesn't wanna see you."

Well, they know you can't see her... period... anyway.

Two codefendants?

They're not permitted to speak to each other.

They can't see each other, they can't write to each other,

they can't pass messages to each other.

It wasn't done.

But scheele said, "well, you know,

maybe we could get a letter to caril."

Tense ambient music

so on February 7th, Charley writes his letter to caril,

and it is such a casual kind of letter.

She had not seen Charley since they were on the road,

since she had seen him kill all these people.

[Charles vo] February 7th, 1958.

Dear caril, how are you?

Okay, I hope.

They said I cannot see you

'til they get done talking to you so...

I'm hoping I can see you then.

That is, if you would want to see me.

I'm sorry about your mom, dad, and sister.

I would like to know something...

Did you think that I would have killed you when we got to

Washington?

I told you I could not shoot you if I had to.

And one more thing I would like to know: Them things you were

saying when we were on the road, like...

When I asked you if you hate me...

And I think you know what the rest of them were...

Was you just giving me a line or...

What was you?

Write back if you will.

Please.

Chuck.

Ps you know damn well I would never shoot you.

[Girl vo] Chuck...

I don't want to see you...

Because I might do something I would be sorry for later on.

Elmer scheele brought to Charley the note from caril

saying that she didn't want to see him and,

while Charley's in the bad mood, also said,

"and by the way, she's been saying that you're crazy."

That's the one thing Charley did not want anybody to ever say

about him, let alone his ex-girlfriend,

the girl who he thought he had control over.

But who facilitated that?

The cops and the prosecutors.

They wanted to turn him against her.

She is practicing writing a letter...

On the back page of judge Harry Spencer's stationary.

Well, you just don't go out and get a judge's stationary.

He had to give it to somebody.

This just isn't legal malpractice,

this is evil.

They wanted her to be put into prison;

they wanted her to be guilty.

Tense ambient music

he thought to himself, "here's this gal I love,

who was gonna go out with me in a Blaze of glory,

James Dean, the whole thing, and she's turning on me."

So he's like, "okay, well, let me tell you what really

happened," and that's when he started saying that she

committed these murders.

And that's when his story changed every single time he

told it.

His life today with the attitude of an interested bystander.

[O'Donnell vo] Charley's trial was interesting in the fact they

were charging him with first-degree murder for the

killing of Robert Jensen.

They picked the Jensen murder to prosecute because they felt that

was the easiest one to prove.

There was such a juxtaposition between this 17-year-old student

council president, and here was Charley.

[Gavel banging]

[Man] Charles Raymond starkweather is called as a

witness on his own behalf.

State your full name, please.

Charles Raymond starkweather.

[Man] How old are you, Charles?

[Charles] 19.

Charley...

Wanted to plead "not guilty" by the reason of all the killings

were in self-defense.

Now...

That one's a stretch.

[Man] Charley, do you feel any remorse or sorrow for these

people that you've killed.

[Charles] I won't answer that.

[Man] But you do feel that every one of them that were

killed, you killed in self-defense,

is that correct?

[Charles] The ones I killed, yes.

[Audience murmuring]

[Jeff mcarthur vo] Charley's attorney is at a total loss as

to what to do.

Then, he thinks, "well, there is another person there.

Tense music

and if she was the one manipulating him,

then let's point the finger at her and say that Charley was a

victim of manipulation."

So from then on, the defense attorney's whole reasoning in

Charley's trial was "it's caril's fault."

The prosecution, also knowing that they're going to be trying

caril soon, instead of fighting against them,

suddenly, they're both in agreement... "Yeah,

it's caril's fault" and they went,

both, right along with it.

[Gavel banging]

[Man vo] Helen l starkweather is called as a witness on behalf

of the defendant.

[Helen] Soon after he started going with caril,

it seemed like his family was pushed behind,

and his whole life centered around her.

She seemed to have a hold on him.

[Audience murmuring]

And so much of what people now believe happened comes from

that, comes from this trial where there was nobody

representing caril fugate.

During that trial, Charley testified and blamed caril Ann

fugate for killing Carol king.

[Man] Charley, in your confession pertaining to the

Jensen case, right after you left the cave out there,

I think your confession said that you were mad at caril about

something.

What were you mad at her about, Charley?

What she did.

[Man] And what did she do there?

[Charles] Shot Carol king.

[Audience gasps and murmurs]

[Man] She... shot... Carol... king?

[Charles] Yes, sir.

Which was a bombshell.

The courtroom just was stunned.

Suspenseful music

[male reporter vo] A smiling, nodding Charles starkweather

walked out of the Lancaster county district courtroom a

little after three o'clock this afternoon...

A man ordered to die in the electric chair.

Jury members ordered the death penalty.

The 19-year-old former Lincoln garbage collector took the

verdict with the apparent indifference that had marked his

manner throughout the trial.

Here comes... here comes Charles starkweather now,

this time a cigarette is lighting, smiling.

[Male reporter] What do you think of the verdict, Charles?

[Male reporter] I see Charley, thank you.

[Male reporter] What do you think of the verdict, Charles?

[Charles] Yeah, it was fair.

[Male reporter] All right, we had a very short word with

Charles starkweather there in which he said that he thought

the verdict was fair.

Starkweather was gonna be convicted.

There was more of a question about whether caril would be

convicted of first-degree murder or a lesser charge.

But, in all likelihood, the die had been cast at that point.

Nobody in those jury rooms didn't know about this case.

[James mcarthur vo] The general feeling in the public,

there was no question... they absolutely believed caril was

guilty.

I know the police were very strongly wanting to see her

convicted.

There was so much pressure against caril.

The crime was so horrific, involved so many people... and

very prominent people... that it just wasn't good enough that

just one person... Starkweather... be found guilty.

If the crime is so horrific, the public kind of seems to demand

that the perpetrators be as broad as the crime itself is.

[Battisti vo] She was a juvenile and should have been tried

in juvenile court; The statute was very,

very clear on that.

It was as if there was a tacit assumption among the judges...

And the prosecutors that "we're gonna go for her.

We were really made fun of, you know,

because we couldn't catch starkweather.

There's egg on our face."

So I think it was "let's sacrifice this young girl for a

couple of years.

She's gonna get out eventually."

Tense music

there were certain factors at play when this happened.

Both Elmer scheele and sheriff karnopp were up for reelection

that year.

[Man vo] I think of all the participants on the prosecution

side, county attorney scheele probably would have been the

most vulnerable.

He could very well have wound up losing his position had caril

been acquitted.

The fact of the matter is the police were under incredible

pressure.

Not everybody necessarily played fair.

[James mcarthur vo] Out in Wyoming,

where caril and Charley were caught,

when the authorities from Nebraska came,

they came with the idea...

That caril was guilty.

They were making accusations against caril which couldn't

possibly have been true.

Then, of course, there was that matter of that she had written a

note that she was being held hostage.

Tense music

[battisti vo] She wrote a note saying,

"help, police, don't ignore."

And she kept that in her pocket.

And her intention was when she was able to pass that on to

somebody...

[James mcarthur vo] They found it in Wyoming in the pocket of

the jacket she was wearing, and mrs heflin,

she helped her husband put various pieces of evidence in a

box...

And sent it all back to the sheriff back here.

She was disgusted to learn that all of the evidence... except

for one piece, and that was that note... came back here.

And someone went...

"Oh. [Laughs]

'Help, police, don't ignore?' What do I do with this?"

It was deep-sixed.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] When my grandfather became her attorney,

she just stared talking about Charley,

and he goes, "okay, that's all good,

but we need to start preparing for your case,"

and she just went, "what are you talking about?"

And he says, "well, they charged you,"

and she goes, "what are you talking about?!

I didn't do... Charley did all the stuff!"

And my grandfather had to tell her that her life was on the

line.

Tense music

enter ninette beaver, who goes to him and is like,

"hey, we need to start telling the public more about her.

They're hearing all of these rumors and all these things from

Charley."

My grandfather kept putting it off because of the fact that he

didn't want the trial to be all about... through the newspapers.

But she finally was able to convince him because the rumor

was getting spread around that caril was pregnant,

and she's like, "we have to put her on camera so people see she

isn't pregnant."

Ninette, she was wonderful, she was like a pioneer in Nebraska

television.

I think she was the first female TV reporter.

[James mcarthur vo] Nothing like this had ever been done on

national television before.

And so when they got a chance to do it,

this was a feature that was shown and filmed for 'the today

show.'

She'd never had these clothes on before.

This was all a new look.

If anything, they made her look too old.

They made her look like a woman who was 10 years older than...

Which was a very, very bad move.

So my grandfather was a little worried that on national

television, she was going to...

Get really emotional, so he told her,

"don't let anything rattle you, don't get,

you know, too excited, et cetera."

Instead of letting herself get emotional,

she just went stone-cold, and all of her answers were very

robotic.

Now, had you gone with him for quite a while?

Yes, I had went with him the year before,

and then...

I told him I didn't want to see him again,

but he came back.

Now, that Sunday, I told him to leave and I didn't ever

wanna see him again.

Why?

What had brought you to this conclusion?

Why didn't you wanna go with him anymore?

I think he's crazy.

[Ninette] Is it true that you refused to let Charles give...

Give himself up after Bennet?

No, I wanted him to give himself up,

but he said he couldn't.

[Ninette] He didn't say why he couldn't?

He said one more killing wouldn't make any difference.

[Ninette] And then, you knew then that you were just gonna go

on from there, is that right?

No, I didn't.

[Ninette] You just didn't know what to think about it?

No, after he had...

After I heard the shots from the...

Teenager, I knew at any minute, he could kill me.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] What they heard wasn't as important as

what they were seeing, which was this stone-cold woman.

And even though she's a girl, they just saw her as a woman,

and they just became more convinced that she was a killer.

Charles has said in his confession that at times,

you held the gun on some of the victims.

Is that true?

No, it's not true.

Now, out in, uh, Nebraska, a filling station attendant said

that, um...

Charles got out of the car and went into the filling station

and that you were sitting there with a gun on your lap.

Why didn't you, uh, get away at that time?

He had a knife and he had a gun with him.

Did you know how to drive the car?

People just thought she was unemotional,

uncaring, and it was easy for them then to couple her with

Charley.

PTSD is really a physiological, neurobiological shift into a

survival mode.

For a person with post-traumatic stress disorder,

in some ways, it's actually safer to feel nothing than it is

to feel potentially overwhelmed with anger,

distress, fear, sadness.

That can be very overwhelming.

We heard, uh, a lot of rumors right after you were brought

back that, uh, you were expecting a baby at the time you

were captured.

Have you had a baby since you've been here in...

No, I haven't.

I've never been pregnant and...

I've never had a baby.

Ominous music

it was a public relations disaster.

[O'Donnell vo] This was a shock.

The public, when they saw her and her interview,

they just...

"Oh...

She looks... like she could have participated in everything that

happened!"

And... big mistake.

Suspenseful music

[Male reporter vo] Caril Ann fugate didn't seem like the

central figure in a first-degree murder trial as she entered the

courthouse, her hand clenched tightly in that of mrs merle

karnopp, the sheriff's wife.

Why did sheriff karnopp have to do a perp walk with caril fugate

every day down in the street?

He could have parked right up at the courthouse steps and let her

out.

His media savvy was incredible.

He put caril on the front page every single day in a way that

any lawyer would not want their defendant to be seen.

That kind of stuff isn't done today for a reason.

[Male reporter vo] The 15-year-old fugate sat quietly

in the courtroom, seemingly swallowed up in the oversized

lawyer's chair with a look of forced attention on her

perpetually-pouty face.

It came out in Charley's trial a lot was "did she have

opportunity to get away?

Was she his accomplice or not accomplice?"

But in her trial is where that became the really big issue.

Tense ambient music

[Larkin vo] He could have easily exonerated her and got or

off quicker, or maybe it was a few years in a reformatory.

No, he was dead-set that she abandoned him,

she betrayed him, and he would do anything he needed to do to

take her down with him.

Witness.

At a certain point, everybody just stopped listening to

anything else that was going on in the trial at that time,

and they... all the eyes kept looking at the door.

It was like this sick fascination.

"Charley starkweather's gonna be here."

He came in and he was announced, and the doors opened.

I mean, he might as well have been a prince walking in.

The last time caril had seen Charley was in Wyoming,

when she had run from him and jumped into the police car.

And since then, she had learned that he had killed her family.

Tense music

[battisti vo] When she saw that starkweather was going to take

the stand, she dug her nails into the wrist of her lawyer.

And she told me, she said, "he must have been bleeding,

Linda, because I dug and I dug, and I did not take my nails off

of him until starkweather was off the stand."

[Man] Charles, will you tell us what is the fact with reference

to this story about her parents being held hostage?

[Charles] It's a story we made up.

[Man] Who made up that story?

[Charles] We both did.

[Man] While you were staying at the bartlett home?

Yes.

[Man] And what is the truth with reference to you holding

caril hostage?

[Charles] Now, that ain't true.

[Man] Do you have any idea why caril didn't make an effort to

get away from you?

[Charles] No.

No.

She had all the chance in the world.

Tense ambient music

[Oberlander] Right here.

"I hope to god to get through this."

Right there.

And then she goes with the hand.

I'm George oberlander Jr. I have a severe to profound hearing

loss and I rely on lip reading and various body language

reading.

It's fairly complicated.

I don't fully understand how I do it.

My doctors never understood.

The person that we're talking about today really had a unique

style of talking.

I don't know if you noticed that.

I had to practice.

Three hours.

Three hours to do three minutes.

"I have a story to tell."

"What are we gonna do when we get out of here."

That's it there.

She's smiling!

She's relaxed, confident.

There is no way she thought she was gonna be found guilty.

You can't have that...

Level of emotion if you think something bad... you think you

did something bad or you think something bad is gonna happen to

you.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] I do know that my grandfather was pretty

certain that she would be convicted.

He had no faith, really, that the people of Nebraska would

treat her fairly.

Getting Charley wasn't enough; They wanted more blood.

[O'Donnell vo] A lot of the other testimony Charley gave,

they felt that he lied in many different things and it wasn't

such a concern.

But what they did believe was that she had ample opportunity

to get away from him and... did... not.

And that cinched that "guilty" verdict on caril Ann fugate.

Sad ethereal music

and she's, I think, the youngest gal that's ever been sentenced

to life in united states history.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] She acted initially the way a lot of

people would... just breaking down and crying.

But then, she just looked at the jury and said,

"if you really thought I was guilty,

why didn't you give me the chair?"

Tracking down these kids, and that if they'd have found out

that Charley killed colvert a month of so earlier,

this never would have happened.

In a kind of a jungian collective unconscious,

there is a need to blame the woman.

You could call her "Eve," you could call her "Delilah,"

but by god, you're gonna blame the woman;

that's what's gonna happen.

[Slides clicking]

People blame the woman.

People love to blame the woman.

[Commotion]

First, she believed that she was saving her parents' lives,

then she believed she was gonna get killed.

Who would have been that brave?

Oh, anybody you talk to would have.

"Well, I would have escaped!"

Yeah...

"Well, I would have known what to do!"

Hell...

Tense music

[Jeff mcarthur vo] For quite a while,

caril has been rebuking Charley, saying that she didn't wanna see

him.

But then, when his execution date is coming up,

she started saying, "no, Charley,

you need to recant all that.

You need to say I didn't do those things.

You know I didn't do those things."

People just simply believe whatever he said,

they're hanging on his every word,

and so if he recanted, that would go a long way.

And he's just ignoring her.

[Girl vo] To mr and mrs guy starkweather.

I want you to know I did everything I could... and my

lawyers did, too... to help Charles from being executed.

Can you get him to tell the truth about my family's death?

If you could get him to do that, I would be ever grateful,

and it would help him, too.

Thank you, caril fugate.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] So caril fugate is writing to anybody who

might have any possible control over his execution.

She even wrote a telegram to the president of the United States.

[Girl vo] Starkweather will be executed tomorrow.

I have been denied by governor Brooks a request to see him and

see if he will tell the truth in front of a minister or someone

else who would fair before he is executed.

I know you are very busy, but please help me in any way you

can.

Thank you, caril Ann fugate.

Of course, this, in many ways, makes her look bad,

because it looks like she is defending,

you know, her boyfriend, when in fact,

what she's really doing is trying to say,

"hey, he knows the truth, he knows he's telling a lie,

I can talk him into telling the truth,

but I need more time."

Eerie ethereal music

the doctor who was going to be there to pronounce death keeled

over of a heart attack right before they were taking him.

Well, uh, dr finkel was standing in front of the,

uh, door of the warden's office, had,

uh, an immediate seizure.

He died almost immediately.

[Male reporter] And he would have been the one to pronounce

starkweather dead?

Yes, sir, that was his purpose for being here.

That made it someone else have to step in,

certainly, to become the doctor.

Enforcement officers and attorneys.

And they didn't let the public in.

And I suppose I had got on because I knew most of these

people.

And Charley said, "how much time do I have left?"

And the guard or whatever said, "15 minutes."

And Charley said, "well, I guess that's it, then."

And then, he put a small plastic cross in his right palm...

Chaplain kline read the 23rd psalm to him,

and then he was taken to the execution chamber.

As the execution gets closer and closer,

you think, "he'll do it now, he'll do it now.

He can't go to his death with the lie on his soul."

He was the only person in the world who knew...

She was not guilty.

Suspenseful music

tense ambient music